✤ What now for the Nation's Sweetheart? Ousted from the American X Factor panel in favour of MC Scat Cat, is Cheryl Cole's dream of breaking the US really over? To help reverse her fortunes, we present five sure-fire tips to cracking the States: 1) Start dressing a bit more Downton Abbey. It's all very well back-combing your hair and wearing fancy designers, but what Americans want to see their Brits in is starched collars and crinolines. 2) Sign to LA Galaxy. No one understands David Beckham either, but crucially he looks good in shorts. 3) Run for president. There may be legal hindrances attached to this, but the Republicans seem to be floundering in their search for a suitably sparkling candidate for the 2012 election. Sure, Obama secured the scalp of Bin Laden, but Cheryl's got dimples, and really long eyelashes. 4) Play Kate Middleton in new royal wedding biopic (AKA "the Helen Mirren route"). 5) Interview Richard Nixon. Cole/Nixon has a certain ring to it.

✤ There is growing support for Christine Lagarde, France's finance minister, to replace Dominique Strauss-Khan as head of the IMF – her backers now include Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel, as well as Alistair Darling and George Osborne. A female head of the organisation would perhaps inspire a new way of running the global financial system. After all, Lagarde once quipped that "if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters, today's economic crisis would look quite different," and noted that "as a woman, I am, perhaps, more keenly aware of the damage done through greed, pride, and a lack of transparency".

✤ Striking revelations from the Hay literary festival, where Nigella Lawson announced that her book How to Be a Domestic Goddess is not so much a recipe book as a feminist tract – two doughy fingers to the "male province" of restaurant cuisine. Quite right. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to spend the rest of the day baking jam roly poly in honour of the sisterhood.

Do women bank differently? And what's the most feminist cake? Let us know on the blog.